never existed a man who knew the true interest of his country better than Washington, or sought it in a simpler or wiser way.

His farewell address bears ample testimony to his unbounded patriotism, and will ever be the noblest document of his great and enlightened mind. The experience of his long and splendid career is, as it were, compressed into a few words, and recommended with a warmth of feeling, of which many thought him incapable, and which may be attributed to the thorough conviction, that through the adoption of those principles alone his country could be happy. So true are the principles he lays down in this celebrated document, so wise the maxims he recommends, that the Union and their President cannot desert those counsels, without risking their welfare, and even their political existence.

To the adoption of Washington's maxims, the United States are undoubtedly, in a great measure, indebted for their present unexampled prosperity. "The great rule of conduct for us," says this great statesman, "in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connexion as possible. So far as we have already

formed engagements, let them be fulfilled. Here let us stop. It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world. The inducements of interests for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortune.

This was the road recommended by him as the only one by which they and their young republic could attain that degree of power and wealth which now furnishes so interesting a spectacle to mankind.

Washington's successor (Adams), having different views, pursued a different track. His party (the Tories), his distinguished family-connexions, and important public services, elevated him to the post which Washington had occupied. Having manifested extraordinary zeal against Great Britain during the revolutionary war, these effervescences of a callous and ambitious mind were mistaken by the republican party (the Federalists

and Democrats) for signs of genuine republicanism. The nation, however, had very soon an opportunity of convincing itself that the hatred he bore to England had no other source than his being under its government a mere colonist, and his zeal no other aim than to make his party the rulers of the people, and himself and his family the head of that party. It is not without horror that the American Democrats dwell on the scenes of 1798-1801, when the tyranny of the black cockades rendered the difference between them and the Spartan Helots only a name. Happily for the United States, his government was not of long duration. Mr. Adams followed rather too closely the example of the First Consul, and declared, in too unequivocal a manner, his intention of domineering. The oppression and the insults which the Democrats had to endure at this time became so intolerable, and the infringement of their rights so daring, as to excite general discontent. Sedition-laws, arrests, imprisonments, and gibbets, only augmented the evil. Pennsylvania gave the signal for general revolt, which was prevented only by the dismissal of the President. The Johns have never furnished high specimens of a prudent government. The Eng

lish John lost his dominions, the French his liberty, the Bohemian his life, and the American his second election. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, whatever any of their opponents may object against their party principles, were men whose memory ought to be cherished by the people of the United States. What Monroe was-the so roughly treated Monroe-they have already felt, and are likely to feel still more, in the present dearth of statesmen. John Bull has now the satisfaction of knowing that brother Jonathan, who prided himself not a little in having, as he fancied, servants in lieu of Magistrates, has already become the dupe of his second-hand honourables, and is moreover in a pretty fair way of being put, by their well-meant endeavours, on an equal footing with the rest of the world.

CHAPTER II.

Election of the President, 1824.

AMONG the four candidates for the Presidency in 1824, the Caucus candidate, as he was called, Mr. Crawford, was the only one fit, in every respect, to succeed to the chair once filled by Washington. Less splendid than solid in his political career, as a member of Congress, a senator, an ambassador, and Secretary of the Treasury, he expressed himself unequivocally in behalf of the system hitherto pursued, and gave the fairest expectation of his persevering in the principles of Washington. Unhappily, however, under the last three Presidents enormous abuses had crept into the administration; creatures of the reigning party were appointed to all offices, almost to the exclusion of the rest of the nation. Responsibility was wholly out of the question. The arrears in the post-department alone amounted to many hundred thousand dollars. It was deemed expedient to deviate from the existing mode of accepting the Presidents from the hands of Congress, and high time to annul a privilege which